The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise on the big screen has been a mixed bag, at best. The newest entry, the stylized CGI film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, is a brand-new take on the iconic franchise that introduces the turtles to a younger generation of potential superfans. And this time, the cast and creatives of the film got nearly everything right.
The first live-action film in 1990 captured the Ninja Turtles in a way that it's hard to believe would be possible, had 1989's Batman not paved the stylistic way. It was dark, gritty, dirty, and incredible. The sequel, Secret of the Ooze, lightened things up by remembering that the Ninja Turtles are first and foremost comic book characters aimed at children. Things swung too hard toward the silly in the third live-action movie, ending that trilogy. From there, we got the animated TMNT, which was a pseudo-sequel to the original trilogy and was pretty decent, plus the two Michael Bay-produced films in which the titular terrapins looked like actual monsters.
With Mutant Mayhem, producers and writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have done the best thing anyone could have done to the franchise, which is nearing 40 years old: They made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actual teenagers. They are not only voiced by teenagers but also act like them. They're vulnerable, they're inexperienced, and they're thirsty to see what the world has for them after being kept sheltered from it their entire lives.
And, of course, they're also goofing around, making TikTok videos, talking about their favorite K-pop band, and generally doing what you might expect actual teenagers in 2023 to be interested in. That alone makes this the most honest and relevant portrayal of the Ninja Turtles we have ever seen, on-screen or on the page. These are turtles that can speak to the younger generation, as they are part of the younger generation.
When Michelangelo was making Humphrey Bogart jokes in the original TMNT film, a nine-year-old me had no idea what he was talking about. But his voice was funny, which is more than enough when you're nine. Now, the four brothers goof off together, frequently get in trouble, try to impress April, and think they are the coolest and most interesting people around. They are believable teenage siblings.
That believability doesn't stop with the turtles, though. Even Splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan, is at his best in this movie. He's not the wisened, stale mentor of the four brothers. He's their dad. They call him dad liberally, he talks to them like a father would, and it leads to some hilarious interactions.
April (Ayo Edebiri), like the turtles, is a teenager, but one who aspires to be a journalist someday. She's caught off-guard by the giant green mutants, but as something of a social outcast at school herself, the group quickly bond into one of the most believable teenage friend groups you could imagine. Sure, Leonardo is head-over-heels in love with her, as we've seen in the trailers for the film, but even that feels genuine as he lays eyes on the first human to acknowledge him as anything other than a monster.
That's an important piece of the Ninja Turtles lore in Mutant Mayhem. When they were young, Splinter attempted to expose them to the world, but the humans did not respond kindly. So, he's raised his young sons to fear and dislike humans, who he claims are the real monsters.
Nearly every other named character in the film is on the mutant villain team, making for an interesting dynamic that we normally don't see in Ninja Turtles films. For the most part, these are movies featuring the turtles fighting against their eternal nemesis, Shredder. Sure, whatever lackeys, mutant or otherwise, he ensnares in his plans end up being part of the fight, but in Mutant Mayhem, the mayhem is caused by, you guessed it, mutants.
This is due in large part to a remixed origin story for our heroes. In this version, it was troubled scientist Baxter Stockman who created the mutants while attempting to mutate his own family of massive animals. The ooze he made and disposed of in the sewer created not only the turtles, but a small army of animals that mutated to become, among others, thanks to Stockman's experimenting. That's where the villains of the film come from, we we're introduced to Bebop (Rogen), Rocksteady (John Cena), Rey Filet (Post Malone), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou), and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), among others. Leading the group is Superfly, a giant mutated fly voiced by Ice Cube, who says Stockman is the real father to all of the mutants.
The mutants all look and sound great, taking designs from the original animated series and line of action figures and modernizing them the same way the movie has done to the turtles--yes, the turtles all have cell phones, as they should. The only issue is none of the "evil" mutants get a proper amount of character development, if only because there are so many of them. Truth be told, though, it's hard to figure out which ones to lose, as they're all entertaining. Well, almost all of them.
The weakest of the bunch is Cube's Superfly. One could argue that partially due to him being a character created specifically for this film, so there's no nostalgia or memories attached. Ultimately, though, unlike his mutant henchman, who are all mostly comic relief in the film, Superfly is supposed to be important. He's the primary baddie, though an undeniably hollow one. Historically, Stockman himself mutates into a giant fly, which could have been an interesting avenue here. Instead, Superfly is just a thin villain bent on destroying humanity and ruling the world, whether other mutants agree with him or not.
That's the only downside in an otherwise beautiful and engaging movie. The art style is reminiscent of the Spider-Verse movies, as well as director Jeff Rowe's last film, Mitchells vs. the Machines. As more studios experiment with moving away from the Pixar style of animation to get more experimental, the results continue to blow us away. It's especially interesting with Mutant Mayhem, which is about teenagers while also attempting to look as though it's made by teens, as well. The result is a wonderfully messy look for the film, which plays right into this version of New York City, as well as this take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
All in all, this movie is a massive win for the franchise, which has taken quite a few knocks in recent years. The Michael Bay turtles are now dead and buried, one would hope, with Mutant Mayhem--which already has a sequel and TV series in the works--paving the way for so much more TMNT to come.
